The Planet of Quire

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In the wake of Gumption's death, and with the killer at large, the Divine Fleet dispatches a group to prepare the planet of Quire for refugees. The living vessel named Myriad carries six (including herself) individuals to a clearing south of the Painted Plateaux*. Included on the crew are the ship's mind herself, a diplomat authorized to negotiate with the civilizations of Quire, a bio-mechanical cyborg with extensive military experience (Andrew Lee Swan), a martial artist with a commuted prison sentence (Andi Clare), an artist, engineer, and designer of mechs (Art Martinez-Tebbel), and a broadcaster who is designated to report on the operation (Keith J. Carberry). Their first task: Establish an uplink to the Twilight Mirage's network by-way-of a two-ton communications node, which must be installed hundreds of miles north of the ship’s landing point.

So, um… How you holding up, Primary? It's been, I guess about a month, since Gumption died? And Empyrean and ⸢Blooming⸣, they've been watching the people and the fleet mourn the death of yet another Divine. And I've been watching them.

By definition, faith's supposed to be invisible. But the hope of the Fleet has always been just really material. It's been right there, in their parades and their songs and their tears and sweat, and their fists all clenched up after a wound. But with Gumption and ⸢Covenant⸣ gone, if their hope yet lived, I registered no material evidence. That's why they finally acted, Primary.

For a long time, Empyrean has held one law to be true above all others. You know this. "Steal no one's perch." While the other Divines of the Fleet had pursued and pretty much failed at colonization efforts, Empyrean and the people of Seance hadn't. Their domain was the sky, not the land. They were Empyrean, right? "The highest of highs, the most heavenly of heavens, dreamt first by the Divines themselves," quote unquote. But now the people needed a sign, they needed an investment in hope. And so suddenly, they started looking for a perch.

I watched them scour the records of the Memorious library, I watched them find a new home. Or what looked like one, anyway. A world of singing storms and howling seas, deserts and mountains, lakes and forests and swamps and ice, a planet with as much diversity as the citizens of the fleet. And I observed relief in ⸢Blooming⸣'s eyes when she found the loophole. Records indicated that on multiple occasions over the last 800 years, people had fled the Fleet and wound up on that planet.

"Perhaps," I overheard her telling Empyrean, "This wasn't someone else's perch at all." Before they vanished, the DivineCuriosity named that planet. 'Quire.' Do you know the word, Primary? Q-U-I-R-E. Definition 1: A collection of twenty-four or sometimes twenty-five sheets of paper of the same size and quality. Sometimes twenty-five. It's so very Curiosity, isn't it? Definition 2 (archaic): An organized group of church singers. Definition 3: A division of angels.